Vintage World War II B-17 bomber 'Flying Fortress' soars again

The B-17 used in filming the movie "Memphis Belle" and dubbed the "Flying Fortress," landed at Olive Branch Airport Monday for tours and public flights this weekend.

Dick Eiseman was sitting in the living room of his East Memphis home Monday morning, when an unmistakable sound thundered overhead, a noise he hadn't heard much since 1945.

"I heard that engine and said, 'That's got to be a B-17!' " said Eiseman, 88.

Yes, it was. A vintage World War II B-17 bomber — the same one used in the 1990 "Memphis Belle" movie — flew into the Olive Branch Airport Monday in preparation for tours and public flights this weekend. Pilots with the Liberty Foundation, which spends about $1.5 million annually to care for the aging bomber, took the "Flying Fortress" aloft twice Monday to drum up interest in those flights.

"The minute people think that flying in a B-17 isn't cool anymore, we've got problems," said John Ferguson, a volunteer pilot who handles the B-17 at some of its 50 or so appearances around the country each year. "Museums are great, but there's nothing like getting in a plane and flying (in) it."

Out of respect for Eiseman's 32 missions in B-17s during World War II, flight organizers invited him to Olive Branch to see the bomber, which was built in 1945 but never actually saw combat. Eiseman couldn't resist climbing in, just like he did nearly 70 years ago. For the third time since he mustered out of the Army Air Corps in 1945, Eiseman took to the skies once again in a B-17 bomber.

Just about everything was instantly familiar, if not quite as stressful as the flights Eiseman took when he was 20.

For one thing, the former flight engineer on the B-17 named "Going My Way" didn't have to help keep an eye on the instruments, just to make sure the engines on the B-17 bomber were working properly.

And for another, no one was shooting at him, and he wasn't shooting back from the turret gun mounted atop the Flying Fortress.

"It was easy for me. I was sitting behind the pilot and co-pilot. They were doing things up there that I used to do for the pilot and co-pilot," Eiseman said.

Near the end of 1942, Eiseman got his draft notice and reported for duty. He wasn't really sure what branch of the service he wanted, but didn't object when he was placed in the Air Corps. After months of training, Eiseman was sent to his base in England in 1944. In June, he and his crewmates undertook their first mission.

"It was right after D-Day. We flew very short missions at very low altitude. Bombing bridges ahead of the troops. We did several a day," he said. "We really didn't know what we were doing or how we were going to do it."

They learned fast, though, the 10 of them in that crew. They performed well, too, since they never got shot down during those 32 missions. They also never lost a single crewman to enemy attack, and Eiseman made it through the war without injury.

"You don't want to get terrified (up there)," Eiseman said. "You've got nine other men on the aircraft and you work together as a team."

That's not to say their missions weren't dangerous, though. "Going My Way" — they named it after the Bing Crosby musical — did make one emergency landing. Another time, after a particularly fraught bombing run, the crew counted 146 holes in the plane from bullets and flak.

"When the flak started hitting that plastic (covering the turret gun), it sounded like something pecking away at you," Eiseman said. "There was no protection for you."